1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a portable terminal, and more particularly, to a method and an apparatus for managing screens of a portable terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently, portable terminals such as smart phones provide various functions such as those of a multimedia player, an electronic book reader, a text editor, and a game console.
In operation, various functions of portable terminals are provided by arranging icons in the background (i.e., wall paper) for quickly selecting and executing a particular function. As applications downloaded from numerous sources, such as the Android Market or App Store, by a user increase, the number of icons arranged on the screen also has increased.
Due to limited display area in the portable terminals, it is impossible to arrange all icons in one screen. Therefore, portable terminals provide a plurality of screens, on each of which different icons are arranged.
However, as the number of icons arranged on the screen increases, it becomes difficult to manage icons and screens where icons are arranged.
Though it may be easy to manage icons and screens in case of devices, such as a desktop computer, including convenient input units such as a keyboard and a mouse, it is difficult to manage icons and screens in portable terminals for which it is not easy to use a keyboard or a mouse. For example, a portable terminal provides plural screens, switching between which is performed using touching and dragging the screens. To move an icon arranged on a particular screen to another screen, it is required to first touch the icon and then keep on dragging the icon toward said another screen, which causes inconvenience during operation.
Accordingly, it is necessary to propose an invention which enables convenient managing of screens and icons arranged on the screens even in a portable terminal.